1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910821707103321

Autore

Agius Vallejo Jody

Titolo

Barrios to burbs [[electronic resource] ] : the making of the Mexican-American middle class / / Jody Agius Vallejo

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, Calif., : Stanford University Press, 2012

ISBN

0-8047-8316-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (248 p.)

Disciplina

973/.046872

Soggetti

Middle class Mexican Americans

Mexican Americans - Social conditions

Social mobility - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Class, assimilation, and Mexican Americans -- Mexican Americans yesterday and today -- From the barrio to the Middle America : divergent class backgrounds and pathways into the middle class -- Family obligations, giving back, and middle-class individualism -- Mexicans or coconuts : middle-class minority and American identities -- Ethnic professional associations and the minority culture of mobility -- Conclusion : the new American middle class.

Sommario/riassunto

Too frequently, the media and politicians cast Mexican immigrants as a threat to American society. Given America's increasing ethnic diversity and the large size of the Mexican-origin population, an investigation of how Mexican immigrants and their descendants achieve upward mobility and enter the middle class is long overdue. Barrios to Burbs offers a new understanding of the Mexican American experience. Vallejo explores the challenges that accompany rapid social mobility and examines a new indicator of incorporation, a familial obligation to "give back" in social and financial support. She investigates the salience of middle-class Mexican Americans' ethnic identification and details how relationships with poorer coethnics and affluent whites evolve as immigrants and their descendants move into traditionally white middle-class occupations. Disputing the argument that Mexican communities lack high quality resources and social capital that can help Mexican Americans incorporate into the middle class, Vallejo also



examines civic participation in ethnic professional associations embedded in ethnic communities.